30 years later, 'Witches of Eastwick' continues to cast a spell

COHASSET – The opening to Michael Cristofer’s screenplay for “The Witches of Eastwick” sets the scene: “A picture-postcard New England village. Peaceful and just a little mysterious in its stillness.”

The camera swoops down through the clouds and alights on this seaside paradise dotted with a graceful white church, lush green common, white clapboard houses and cozy inlets all bathed in a golden glow. It’s charming – and it’s Cohasset, a town that after 30 years is still proud to have been the main filming site for director George Miller’s battle-of-the-sexes fable, “The Witches of Eastwick.” An adaptation of the John Updike novel, the film debuted June 12, 1987. To celebrate its 30th anniversary, Showcase Cinemas is holding special screenings of the film on Thursday, Oct. 26, at select locations, including Randolph.

“Cohasset felt like home for us,” Cristofer said by phone from his home in Woodstock, N.Y.

Hollywood took over the town in the summer of 1986 for the two-month shoot that transformed Cohasset into Eastwick with the aid of technicians, trailers, trucks, extras, cameras, lights, rain-and-wind machines, props, costumes and all the trappings to make movie magic. Thus setting the scene for Cher, Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer to play women leading uneventful lives, until they conjure up their perfect man, who turns out to be the “horny little devil,” Daryl Van Horne. He was played – naturally – by Oscar-winner Jack Nicholson, first seen in the movie cruising on Jerusalem Road in a black Mercedes.

The summer-long shoot cast as much a seductive spell on the South Shore as Daryl Van Horne put on the three women. At the Cohasset Historical Society, Kathy O’Malley and member Julia H. Gleason eagerly showed me a trove of photos from the shoot pulled from the town’s “official scrapbook,” donated by the late John Connell, a former member of the society. Among the archives are dozens of yellowed Patriot Ledger and Cohasset Mariner news clippings and black-and-white photos. In one image, Nicholson is seen being blown down Elm Street by a huge wind machine. In another, he’s smoking a cigarette. Gleason also holds up a copy of The Eastwick Word, the fictional newspaper where Pfeiffer’s character worked as a reporter.

“Everyone was star struck,” Gleason said. “I’ll never forget how it was hot and then suddenly there’s this lashing rain and feathers blowing everywhere.”

Gleason waxes nostalgic about how approachable the A-list stars were. “Everyone said Jack was so personable and such a great guy, posing for pictures and signing autographs,” she said. “You could walk up to them. You can’t do that today.”

By all accounts, the film was a hit. It cost about $35 million to make and grossed close to $64 million. “Witches” came in second in its opening weekend behind Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Predator.”

Originally, the movie was to be shot in Little Compton, R.I, but after religious objections to Nicholson as a lecherous warlock cavorting with three mischievous witches, the production was barred. “Even real witches were upset. They said the movie was an ‘an anti-witch story’” Cristofer said. “A lot of people were upset that you would do a film where the devil was charming and sexy. I don’t think you could make that movie now.”

The Massachusetts Film Office lobbied hard to lure the production to the South Shore, Cristofer said. Cameras also rolled in Scituate at the now-shuttered Quarter Deck antique shop on Front Street, renamed the Yapping Fox for the film. For Daryl’s mansion, the facade is the Crane Estate in Ipswich and the ballroom is the Wang Theater in Boston. School scenes were filmed at Milton Academy.

“Updike lived in Beverly, so they were very proactive in getting the film to Massachusetts,” Cristofer said. “The problem with Massachusetts was Little Compton had everything we needed in one place, but when the move was made ... we had to go pretty far afield to find everything we needed. We went up and down the coast from Ipswich to Scituate.”

Cristofer said the protesters followed. “The book is a lot darker than what I did with the screenplay, and I think the reverend in Cohasset recognized that. He welcomed us fully. Updike always had an ambivalent view of women and his female characters did terrible things to each other. That view of women in the book didn’t interest me.”

Instead Cristofer focused his 128-page screenplay on just the first-half of the novel, fleshing out a story about a trio of independent and intelligent witches shackled by small-town mores and historical traditions discovering they are stronger together.

Before penning the script, Cristofer, also an actor and director, won a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for writing the play, “The Shadow Box.” More recently, he played a pedophile priest on the Showtime drama, “Ray Donovan,” and a villainous CEO on the USA hit, “Mr. Robot.” When he looks back on “The Witches of Eastwick,” one of his favorite memories is working with Nicholson. “He spoke every line of the script word for word,” Cristofer said.

That was a bright spot, especially for a writer. However, the production process wasn’t so smooth. Cher wanted Sarandon’s part, initially, so they switched. “Cher was hotter career-wise at that time, and had some power, so she lobbied to get the part of Alex,” he said.

There were well-documented problems with executive producer, Jon Peters, too. “He was difficult, unpredictable and threw temper tantrums,” Cristofer said, adding that Miller, the director, quit the movie twice. “Finally, it was Jack who held the movie together.”

A point of contention was the use of special effects, especially in the film’s climax. The studio wanted to go big, and the filmmakers didn’t. “All those special effects were too much. Up until then, we had a pretty sophisticated and witty story, but the end is an FX extravaganza,” Cristofer said.

During the editing process Cristofer said Miller, already well-known for the “Mad Max” franchise, “took the (unfinished) film up to his home on Mulholland Drive (in L.A.) and wouldn’t let anyone from the studio in. I ended up being the go-between. I stayed with him for five weeks and we re-cut the film.”

None of it could have happened without the open arms of the “lovely” residents of Cohasset, Cristofer said. Thousands of locals lined up to serve as extras. Many were used in the climatic church scene.

“But little did they know Jack was going to be spewing vomit all over the place,” he said.

That scene was shot inside the First Parish Unitarian Church, into which Nicholson, literally has been blown by the witches’ wrath. As his character rants: “Do you think God knew what He was doing when He created women? So what do you think? Women … a mistake? Or did He do it to us on purpose?,” he starts to vomit cherry pits and juice all over the parishioners, pews and carpet.

“It was cranberry juice and baked beans,” Gleason said, laughing before adding the late Rev. Edward T. Atkinson had no objections to the movie’s themes. His main concern was the church’s carpet. “There were weddings scheduled that weekend and he didn’t want any unhappy brides.” Warner Bros. sprung for a professional cleaning and the studio also gave the town a $25,000 thank-you gift.

Cristofer was surprised to hear the house where Pfeiffer’s character’s lived at 28 Otis Ave., is on the market for $1.5 million. But he is not fazed to hear Cohasset Village looks the same today as it did then. “The vision of Cohasset captured in the opening is incredible. It’s the perfect symbol of small-town New England,” he said.

Dana Barbuto may be reached at dbarbuto@ledger.com or follow her on Twitter @dbarbuto_Ledger.